We should have 3 day weekends every weekend. Seriously! I am all for switching to a 10 hour/4 days per week schedule.
As mentioned previously, we purposefully stayed low key this weekend and it was wonderful.
Friday night I met a bunch of my girlfriends at Olive Garden for a final farewell to one of our besties. She has made the move to South Carolina and we are all so sad! It was so nice to have one last meal together to wish her well on her journey.
Speaking of Journey…Journey’s song “Don’t Stop Believin” is the unofficial theme song for our group of friends. So our last evening with our friend would not have been complete without it. Much to our fellow diners chagrin, we played it on a cell phone right there in the Olive Garden dining room (albeit, at a low-ish volume) and we all (fairly quietly) sang the song together and danced a bit in our chairs. Our waitress even got into it! It was a subdued but fitting send off. Now whenever I hear that song I get a little misty-eyed. We concluded our evening with a good cry together in the parking lot and some big group hugs. Goodbyes are so hard sometimes! Of course we will all see each other soon, as we have plans to meet in Savannah this fall for a big girls only reunion weekend!
Birthday gift to me.
Saturday afternoon, two of my friends and I went shopping. I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so we went to our favorite purse purveyor and I got myself a really cute summer handbag. Actually we each got one. And then we each got a new piece of jewelry. And then we proceeded to my favorite wine store, Total Wine, and we each bought at least 1 bottle of wine (*ahem* I got 3!). I realized that as fun as it is to shop together, we really egg each other on in spending money, which is both awesome and not awesome at the same time. So we ended our shopping spree with three new purses, several new jewelry items, and I think 6 or 7 bottles of wine between the three of us. We got some good bargains, so it’s not so bad.
After shopping, we went to Houlihans and proceeded to over order off of their “small bites” menu so badly that our waiter was laughing at us. Seriously, we saw “small bites” and figured if we each got 2 items, it would be just enough to share everything and be full at the end (did I mention we were all starving at this point?). We also each got the Foursquare check-in deal where we each got a free order of “frites”. Holy crap was that a lot of food!!! We had just enough room on the surface of our huge booth to fit everything. SO embarrassing but so funny too.
I wear my heart in my beer.
We concluded our evening at a local beer/wine bar, Redlight Redlight. I am trying to get more of my girlfriends into beer, especially craft beer, so I thought this would be a good place for them to try some interesting varieties. We tried a Cream Ale, a couple of Left Hand Sawtooths, and a Terrapin Sunray Wheat. Sunray was my favorite, but I am usually a big fan of wheat beers. Oh, and a glass of mead, which is definitely not my thing. Too sweet! I love that the bartenders draw pictures in your foam. I got a heart!
The rest of the weekend was ALL downtime, which was much needed. Tadd cobbled together a PC for me to play Sims 3 on, so I started over with a new town. I love that game, but I always feel like I get sucked into a time warp when I play. Hours go by way too quickly! We ordered chinese on Sunday afternoon, leftovers for dinner, and made brats and pierogies on Monday, watched a lot of TV, cuddled with our kitties on the couch, and just did a whole lot of nothing. I stayed in my PJs all day yesterday, which made me feel like a slob but was really nice at the same time.
And thus ends my glorious 3 day weekend. But even though it’s over, we now have a short week to look forward to. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. How much longer until Fourth of July weekend???
sunshine and some tea 